The invention relates to a vehicle roof with a roof opening delimited by a rain gutter, said opening being closable by a cover, said cover being movable by an electric motor through an incompressible cable, said motor being mounted in the vehicle roof in front of the leading edge of the roof opening and driving a pinion engaging the cable through an intermediate drive, said pinion being disposed on the inside of the rain gutter inside wall, facing the roof opening, on the lengthwise axis of the vehicle.
The arrangement of the electric motor at this point in front of the leading edge of the roof opening has certain advantages over mounting it at another position, since electric drives usually are provided as an optional additional feature instead of a conventional manually actuated, crank operated drive, and since the crank drive must be provided on the lengthwise axis of the vehicle in the vicinity of the leading edge of the roof opening, so as to be comfortably accessible to both the driver and the front-seat passenger, by locating the electric drive at the same point, the largest possible number of identical parts can be used for both drive systems. However, owing to the limited available space, problems arise in conjunction with so installing the electric motor and the intermediate drive. These problems are especially serious when the vehicle roof is covered on the inside by a headlining, particularly a headlining of the type that is provided with depressions to accept sun-visors for the driver and front-seat passenger in front of the roof opening, as is frequently the case in modern vehicles.
Therefore, a primary object of the invention is to provide an electric drive of the type described hereinabove which is characterized by having a small space requirement. This object is achieved according to the invention by virtue of the fact that the intermediate drive is disposed in a drive housing, to which housing the electric motor is flanged to form a module which has the shape of a "V" as viewed from above, one leg of said "V" being formed by the electric motor and being disposed at right angles to the lengthwise axis of the vehicle, and the other leg of the "V" containing the intermediate drive and supporting the pinion.
This design makes it possible to make the length of the electric drive, which extends at right angles to the lengthwise axis of the vehicle, sufficiently short that it fits between the depressions which are provided for accepting the sun visors, and to mount the drive pinion on the lengthwise axis of the vehicle, despite the fact that the point of engagement between the motor shaft and the intermediate drive is necessarily located laterally outside the lengthwise axis of the vehicle.
According to a preferred embodiment, the motor shaft is drivably connected with a shaft of the intermediate drive, said connection extending outward through the drive housing and being provided with a gear at its projecting end, said gear meshing with a switch wheel cooperating with switch contacts. This embodiment is advantageous in that it integrates the electrical switching to control the electric motor, i.e., to shut off the latter in the end positions, in the module. The switch contacts, which are usually in the form of micro-switches, are located on the outside of the drive housing and are therefore readily accessible.
These and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, a single embodiment in accordance with the present invention.